


The Collection of Chaos

by LadyOrderandLordChaos



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Neverwinter (Video Game)
Genre: Chaos Everywhere, Dysfunctional Relationships, F/M, I Don't Even Know, Multi, Neither of us know where this is going., Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:21:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22601644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyOrderandLordChaos/pseuds/LadyOrderandLordChaos
Summary: Lord Chaos and I play Neverwinter a lot. Our characters take on a life of their own. This is a series of their shenanigans. Please enjoy.
Kudos: 1





	1. Denial

Dawn didn't like her.

The circumstances that brought them together were annoying. Valindra and her stupid dragon were annoying, causing havoc and wrecking ships. Yan herself was annoying, always charging in to battles and stealing things. 

Everything was an annoyance. 

Unfortunately, months of fighting undead and dragons and those godsforsaken nightmares in the Chasm often made one rethink the people who weren't trying to kill you. 

All things considered, Yan was not the worst partner. Most certainly not the best, but not the worst. She had her faults. Like charging into battle like a brute instead of using her stealth. A barbarian masquerading as a rogue, Dawn swears. The always almost dying. Taking on monsters Dawn knew they couldn't beat alone but always managed to kill anyway thanks to her pact with Myrkul ensuing they didn't ever die permanently. And stealing Dawn's gold. Stealing precious stones. Stealing armour. Stealing Dawn's promise ring that first day. Stealing a noble's goblet and almost starting a war. Stealing people's valuables out of their pockets and off their fingers. Stealing dogs. Stealing fake ride gold. 

Stealing anything not nailed down really. 

What was she thinking about again?

Oh, yes. Yan's redeeming qualities. 

What were those again?

Ah, she was loyal, to the right people. Rogues were not known for their loyalty. That being said, loyalty could be bought with the right price, but it was easily corruptible, hardly loyalty at all. Dawn didn't have to pay Yan not to stab her in the back, physically or emotionally. Rocky starts with Dawn's ring aside, Dawn was sure now that Yan would defend Dawn's property as fiercely as her own. And Dawn never worried anymore about ending up on the wrong side of Yan's blade. 

So, yes, Yan was loyal to those few deemed worthy. Dawn was the only one she knew off, but they didn't lay out their entire life stories for each other. Comments here and there, but neither had exactly written a book on their tragic pasts. 

Yan cared about suffering people, in her own way, buried under layers of snark and grumbling, untraceable to those who didn't just know. Yan fought to protect, without even realizing it. Sure, she used gold as an excuse, but gold only got so many slavers killed. Dawn and Yan had been in Rothe Valley for weeks killing drow slavers, and they only pocketed about 10 gold and new blades from it. 

Yan also cared about Dawn, the elf knew. 

Dawn and Yan fought like cats and dogs on the battlefield over stupid things, but at the campfire, Yan poked at bruises and stitched and bound wounds and 

_ `Yes, yes, you're still alive, and so am I. We're okay for today. Today, we survived.' _

Dawn never commented on Yan's whispered affirmations. It would be unfair because Yan never comments when Dawn murmured healing spells, mumbling between the spells about _ 'stupid rogues charging off, making me worry. Alive, can't die, not really, but broken and battered. Can't you just be careful for once, stupid rogue.'  _

Sometimes, Dawn cries, face tilted down with tears slipping down her cheeks while she healed Yan's wounds with horribly weak spells because Dawn was not a healing warlock. She couldn't heal Yan like she wanted (needed) to. 

Dawn couldn't do anything to keep Yan from dying. Dawn wasn't a healer. Her patron was death incarnate. 

Dawn bled destruction, her blood ethereal fire. She breathed the fear of death into everyone she met, as per her patron's command. She weaved chaos with her fingertips and despair with her words. Her very touch brought death to mortals. 

Dawn was not a healer. 

All she could do was bring Yan back after she had already died. An amendment to their pact made sure Dawn's patron never took Yan too far out of Dawn's reach. But one day, Yan  _ would _ be too far out of Dawn's reach. One day, they would no longer be together, no longer fight glorious battles. 

That day, Myrkul would reap her soul and there was nothing Dawn could do about it. Heroes were not meant to live forever. Legends cracked and crumbled as the stories faded from thought. 

Dawn hated Yan. Hated Yan for making her care. 

Dawn hated her. 

She could say it all she liked, but it would never make it true. 

Dawn loved her stupid rogue. 


	2. The Lion

The slavers were endless. Killing one seemed to raise 3 more in their place. And the spiders, gods, Dawn hated spiders. They were everywhere, around every corner. All the spiders and webs and crawling skin because spiders were everywhere, crawling over her and she couldn't see them, but she could feel them and that was worse. So much worse. 

Regardless, she and Yan were still keeping score. Spiders were not going to stop that. 

It was 74 to 87, only because Yan kept stealing her kills. The sun had long since sunk down, and Dawn was tired, hungry, and covered in a layer of blood and spider guts. In short, she was miserable. Hence why their current path was towards the nearest campsite of the drow rangers. Yan said Dawn got scary when she was grumpy, but Yan hardly had room to talk with her glare accented by glowing eyes. 

"Lady Dawn. Lady Yan."

"Shut up. Don't look at me, stupid drow." Yan snapped.

The ranger stepped back with raised hands, but he hardly looked scared. The rangers here were used to Yan's volatile mood. Gods knew they had been here long enough for the rangers to know Yan was all bark and no bite to allies who didn't push their luck. 

Yan didn't have any qualms stalking over to the fire, leaving armor and weapons and poisons in her wake. 

"Yo. Who the hell are you?"

"Does it matter?" Someone asked. 

"Yeah, kinda." 

Dawn stepped forward, stopping a few feet away from Yan, using the crackling fire and loud snoring to map out the area. Two new people, one standing with crossed arms and the other laying down. Yan was in front of the one standing, her own arms crossed. 

Dawn knew the elf by his aura. His head was hooded, but she did not need sight to know his presence. 

Warm, bright, a burning star in the darkness, gold in the black. His brother had a similar presence, overpowering. But while Capricorn was simply powerful and could easily slip away, this brother always demanded to be seen. 

"It's about time you showed up. I've been here for hours." The figure said as he turned away from Yan's glare. 

"Ugh, excuse me?" Yan growled in annoyance. 

"What took you so long?" Dawn asked in reply to the elf.

"You know, adventure things. Always cleaning up other people's messes. Nashers, orcs, bandits, werewolves."

"Stop ignoring me!" Yan yelled. 

"Undead, nightmares, slavers." Dawn answered as she gestured back the way they'd come. 

The figure grinned. 

"I'm smiling." He informed. 

"I can tell that. I can hear it in your voice."

Yan huffed before stalking away to throw herself down by the fire, arms crossed and grumbling. Dawn moved closer, slowly, cautiously, because she didn't know what had changed. The man tilted his head, his smile becoming a shaper smirk. 

"What's the matter, little scorpion? Afraid I'll bite?"

"Afraid? No, I encourage it."

"Oh?"

"Very much so." Dawn answered his smirk with one of her own. "I hope you don't think I've lost my bite though, brave lion."

The man stepped closer, just a half a foot between them now. 

"I have traveled so far from you, been away for so long. There has never been a night I didn't dream of you." He reached for her face, resting a palm against her cheek. "There has never been a moment I didn't think of you."

"Never, you say."

"My lady, never. Why would I lie to you?"

"Surely you put some thought into those monsters out for your head. I can't picture you not using that brilliant mind to run away like a terrified girl." Dawn grinned at his indignant huff. 

"That was one time. He had a sword three times the size of me. I'm a squishy, fragile ranger." 

"Mhmm."

"It's not like you're any better, my queen. I can't recall all the times I had to rescue you as you ran away, what was it you said? Like a scared little girl."

"Not my exact words, but fine. Fair point." Dawn smiled happily as she touched his face, running her hand up to his hair, mapping the face she knew but had forgotten the exact details off. 

"I missed you, Leo. What took so long?"

"You're very hard to catch up to, you know, my dear. And then Sargent Knox picked me up off the street by the scruff of my neck and tossed me onto his battlefields."

"I doubt that's true, but okay." Dawn giggled. 

"Now, since I've come all this way, may I kiss my queen again?"

"I suppose. What a large favor to ask, lion."

"A great effort for-"

Dawn had decided his chatter was taking too long, so she yanked him down to her level by her grip in his hair. His lips still tasted like strawberries and smoke, his skin still burning with barely contained fire. He still felt like home. 

Leo chuckled as he pulled back. 

"I have a present for you, little scorpion. One I'm sure you'd like to have back."

"Oh?" 

Leo grinned as he pulled an amulet from around his neck, a skull made of amethyst, the eyes set in ruby and sapphire. 

"It was easy to track, but hard to catch up too. People taking possession of it kept dying, and it kept getting auctioned off. You would think it was cursed by the god of death or something."

"Ha ha." Dawn answered, the sarcasm near tangible. "Give me."

"Close your eyes." Dawn huffed. Leo and his theatrics. He slipped the amulet over her head. "My dear, open your eyes and see again."

She blinked her eyes open, and Leo smiled. 

"Hi." She mumbled, looking over his face. 

"Hey." Leo chuckled. 

"Well, aren't you as handsome as ever." 

"You, too. Gorgeous."

"Cover in blood and guts as I am?"

"Sure. You're always beautiful."

"Is that your companion?" Dawn asked as she motioned toward the other figure. 

An orc, she could now tell. 

"Yeah." Leo sighed. "She wouldn't leave me alone."

"Your orc isn't wearing any pants. Or underwear for that matter." 

Dawn crossed her arms, shaking her head at the company Leo always managed to find. 

"She a half-orc. And an orc ate them." Leo sighed heavily, looking utterly tired. "She refused to buy more. She's been running around like that for months."

"What company the once noble lion keeps, my dear."

Leo sighed again, running a hand through his hair. 

"What about you? Is that your drow?"

"Yes."

Leo leaned forward with a wicked grin, lowering his voice. 

"She stole my gold pouch and thinks I didn't notice."

Dawn covered her eyes with one hand as she sighed. 

"I'm sorry. I'll get it back to you."

"No need." Leo's grin widened, and he held up a pouch. "I took it back." He held up another pouch with his other hand. "Then I returned the favor."

"I did try to warn her." Dawn said. 

"Here you go. You can give this back to her. If she tries anything else on me, I'm taking off her fingers." 

"Fair enough." Dawn finally stepped back, putting some distance between them. "I'm going to eat and change."

"Need any help?"

"No, thank you. I've managed just fine without you."

"Oh, a shame. I have a surprise when you come back out."

"A surprise? What is it?"

"If I told you, it would ruin it. Go on, then."

Dawn shrugged as she headed for the tent she and Yan shared. She tossed the bag of gold at her rouge as she passed. 

"A gift from Leo. Please don't steal from him again."

"What the hell?" Yan yelled as she started patting at her pockets. "What? When did? How did? Just what?"

Leo laughed as he sat down across from the drow. 

"You like to think yourself sneaky, don't you? It doesn't work on someone with perception like mine."

"Who even are you?" Yan groaned as she flopped backwards after shoving her gold pouch back in her pocket. 

"Leo Asteria. Nice to meet you." 

"Ugh." 

Dawn giggled as she ducked inside the tent. 

This, this was family. This was home.


	3. Strays and Family

There was a habit that Leo had that annoyed Rose Fire to no end. 

It wasn't a bad habit, per say. Just annoying. So annoying. 

He tempered it, the half orc could tell, because he got fidgety when he saw one and forced himself to walk away. 

Adopting strays. 

The one with the odd name was first. Right after they had gotten to the Blacklake district that was in utter shambles. Dead people everywhere. 

One was not spared just because they had a 10 year old kid. 

She could barely remember his name, much less pronounce it. 

Something foreign, surely. No one had names like that around here, despite the vast cultures. 

Seijuurou, was his name, written Seijuro in common, but Rose called him Red because her tongue can't flow over the syllables like Leo's noble tongue, so versed in far off languages. 

He spoke proper, for a kid, even for an elf. He was smart, too. He had skills and knowledge, despite lacking the correct words sometimes. He could disarm traps, and he was scarily good at finding hidden treasures easily overlooked. He shouted warning from his hiding spots when enemies managed to slip around to her back, and Leo would nail them or she'd spin faster than the elf could shoot to deal with it herself. It was like Seijuro could see everything around him at times. And he was a seer, too. Not completely trained by a long shot, but his predictions tended to be more accurate than Sybelle's confusing rambles. At least his were coherent if sometimes wrong. 

He stumbled around her at first, flighty and hesitant and scared. So scared. He flinched at her tired sighs or her annoyed growls. He would duck away from her, putting Leo between them and taking the elf's hand. Leo had told her, one morning when Seijuro was still sleeping, that his mother was killed by a half orc Nasher, her throat slit while he watched from the upstairs balcony then he had to watch as she and her orcish friends ate his mother’s corpse. 

Yeah, okay. So she didn't quite blame the kid. 

By the time they left the Tower District, Seijuro and Rose Fire were a lot closer. Full blooded orcs were more barbaric than half orcs could ever be. They had stolen her pants. Seijuro had giggled about it for days afterwards, and Leo had joined him until it stopped being funny when she refused to buy more. 

Needless to say, Seijuro had a lot darker fears now than the half orc who protected him. He was still skittish at times, mostly when she let her temper get the better of her, but he didn't put Leo between them constantly anymore. 

Gods, the second one was a disaster. Leo found Adrien in Blackdagger Ruins. 

The kid had a death wish, surely. At 15 years old, the kid wasn't scared of anything. Well, when you dabbled with black magic and necromancy, Rose Fire supposed you didn't have anything on the mortal plane to be scared of. Leo said Dawn was scared of things far darker than anything in reality. She had seen the astral plane's darkest creatures and was indebted to the god of death. 

Rose didn't know what deity Adrien was indebted to or he worshiped, but he rained fire and raised dead bandits and adventurers alike then healed her and Leo in the same breath. She honestly couldn't tell if he was a cleric or a warlock. This human was so odd. 

And he was so full of anger and hate. He hurt, she could tell. He cursed bandits with each breath, but it never quelled his rage. He conjured fire, but it wasn't bandits that choked on the bitter ashes of hate. He set dead enemies against their once allies, but in the end he always stood alone surrounded by corpses but left with invisible demons he couldn't slay. 

In the end, she wasn't surprised when the flames burned too hot, burned too close, uncontrollable and devouring. 

Leo buried him before they left, unfinished tasks left behind them, but staying hurt. Hurt Leo. Hurt Seijuro. Hurt herself. 

She saw too much of herself in Adrien. 

But her flames had not yet consumed her. 

Vellosk was quiet. Leo passed by the few orphans they saw with his head down and Seijuro close to his side. The darkness hung over Leo like a cloak, keeping him quiet and muted. 

In the Chasm, they were sent as reinforcements. Corruption had been dealt with by Dawn and Yan before them, but nightmares rose again like an unwanted weed. Leo had left Seijuro in the Protector's Enclave with Sybelle. The boy wanted to learn more about his powers,and Leo didn't want the boy here anyway. Neither did Rose Fire. 

Nightmares like these brought grown men shaking to their knees. A 10 year old had no place here. 

A 13 year old didn't either, but Vitale was no ordinary boy. He was… something. Something otherworldly. Something Rose Fire could not put a word to. 

He was a tiefling, obviously. The horns gave him away. But he shimmered, ethereal. His hair shone like black metal, pure white feathers tied within, his eyes caught light like rubies but had no pupils. His skin was pale ivory, but held patches of deep crimson or shining gold. 

A nephalem, he explained. Aasimar and tiefling. Rare and outcasted. He didn't look all that special. Just weird. 

He journeyed with them into the darkness as a quiet shadow. 

At the first encounter, Rose Fire learned why all the guards had looked at them so fearfully as they passed. 

Vitale wielded a gift of magic more powerful than any she had ever seen. He was fluid with fire balls and ice spears, wind on his fingertips and earth as his shield. Lightning cracking across the field and water surging up to drown. Light bright enough to burn and shadows thick and tar like holding enemies in place like chains. He fought as if he had been fighting for years. 

Maybe he had. 

The world was cruel to those it did not understand. 

She asked why he was in the Chasm in the first place. 

"Today I met with fate. I did not know what she had for me, but I faced her anyway. I had no other choice. I came expecting death. Instead, I met you. You now hold my life in your hands. Whatever shall you do with it?"

So Leo adopted him. 

Thank every god there was that this one actually survived because if she lost another punk kid she'd just started to care for, she was going to hurl Leo off a cliff. 

Stupid elf, taking in strays. 

Stupid strays, making her care.

Stupid world, for taking everything from them. 

Stupid people, rejecting them. 

"Why are you thinking so loud? Go to sleep." Leo huffed. 

"Fuck off."

Leo let out a loud gasp as he rolled over to face her over the fire. 

"There are kids."

"Yeah, sis, watch your fucking language." Yan said from the other side of Rose Fire. 

Leo let out another loud gasp. 

"Papa, what's that word mean?" Seijuro questioned innocently as he sat up. 

Leo gasped again before letting out a whine. 

"Dawn, control your rouge."

"She does what she wants, Sunshine. Just ignore her." Dawn mumbled, half asleep. 

"She's corrupting our children." Leo replied urgently. 

"Statistically speaking, Seijuro's probably heard every word close to 50 times already." Yan informed. "Education is important, you know, it's my duty as Aunt Yan to answer this poor boy's question. Know, little Red, fu-"

"No!" Leo yelled as he dove for the boy, covering his ears. 

A knife went sailing pass, nearly hitting Yan but missing mere centimeters as she leaned away with a laugh. 

"Don't you dare, or you will get a one way ticket to my patron." Dawn hissed lowly. 

"He'll learn it eventually. Every adventurer needs to add a bit of pizzazz to their language."

"You know that cussing is a sign of low intelligence." V informed quietly. "Anyone can follow the crowd. It's harder to make exclamations not used by others."

"Kid, you called someone the seed of a snapdragon instead of just saying son of a bitch. That's weird, and makes no sense." Yan argued. 

"But you'd never heard it before."

Yan was silent for a few seconds. 

"Alright, true, but that still doesn't mean I'm stupid."

"No, you're very smart in a great many things, just not language, in which you are very dumb."

"Aww, thanks. … wait, hey!"

"Good to sleep. I swear! Don't make me come over there!" Raven yelled from the second campfire. 

"Ah, there's mom yelling at us to be quiet." Yan commented. 

"Excuse me, what? Wanna say that to Stephana's face, you punk? Better yet, say it to my sword as I jab it through you!" 

Raven was angrily stalking over, sword over her shoulder. 

"Opps, better run."


End file.
